Friday Five: March 30 '07

This week has seen more bad then good in my music listening. So, to offset all the crap being thrown at us by the record industry I've dug out the best five records I could find. But hey, you knew that already, didn't you? Enjoy these records, see you all back here on Monday.




Kathy Diamond - Miss Diamond to You

No, no! Wait, come back! I swear, this isn't one of those crappy LeAnn Rimes-style country albums. In fact, it isn't a country album at all. Quite the contrary, Miss Diamond to You is probably the best indie-electro-pop album I've heard since Hot Chip's The Warning. Speaking of Hot Chip, thats a great place to start when trying to describe Kathy Diamond's sound. Pretty cleaver how I worked that in, don't you think? Sadly this fab LP won't be out for another month or so, but I'm sure that if you're resourceful you can track down a copy before then.

Listen: Kathy Diamond - Over (MP3 link)


Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian

On is Frog Eye's umpteenth release they have actually won me over. After being turned off by the chaotic craziness earlier efforts their new one sounds more like Swan Lake or - dare I say it - Wolf Parade. As I type I'm sure a group of hipsters from BC have put a bounty on my head... Either way, Carey Mercer and Spencer Krug (and the rest) have a real winner on their hands here. Check this out just pretend its one a new Spencer Krug side project.

Listen: Frog Eyes - Bushels (MP3)




Rob Crow - Living Well

Yep, Pinback frontman has pulled a Thom York and releasing a solo album. The good news is also sort of the bad news in this case. The album sounds like...well...a Pinback album. A really good Pinback album, but still a Pinback album. Let's throw in one more for good luck, shall we? "Pinback!" Through and through this LP is really consistently good, twangy, indie rock. Tracks like "I Hate You, Rob Crow" (see below!) make you think back to the first time you heard "Microtonic Wave" and smile. This will be a big hit at partys with your friends who dug last year's Boys and Girls in America. Namely, good music to hang out and get drunk to.

Listen: Rob Crow - I Hate You, Rob Crow (MP3)


The Harlem Shakes - Burning Birthdays

Forget Tokyo Police Club. Cold War Kids, who? The Harlem Shakes will be the new hot thing. Sounding a whole lot like Voxtrot on this new EP, they absolutely blew me away. If anything, Burning Birthdays left me wanting to see them live...conveniently they're touring, EVERYWHERE! So don't be lazy, go out and boogie with those patent indie dance moves.

Listen: The Harlem Shakes (MP3 Link)




Devin the Dude - Waiting to Inhale

Ironically, the feature that really catches my attention on a hip hop album usually isn't the lyrics. It's the production. I find that I'm always drawn back to LP's that have really interesting backing music (see: J Dilla, Ghostface, Mf Doom, Madlib, Zion I). Well add Devin the Dude's latest release to the list. Yeah, we all know he's been around for a million years and has some solid lyrics to top off those backing tracks. But still, the production on this album alone makes it worthy of the Friday Five. Yeah that's right, it's the second edition of this column and it's getting a reputation already. What can I say? I'm hot shit.

Listen: Devin the Dude (MP3 Link)

New Music: Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated Preview

Well well well, I guess that Eddie does read my blog!

(Wishful thinking or sexy reality?)

As mentioned last week the new Art Brut album is all but done! While it only comes out in June, the band's been nice enough to give us three new tracks from the forthcoming It's a Bit Complicated to tide us over until then. All three are equally good, if not better then the band's material on 2004's Bang Bang Rock & Roll. In particular I'm digging "Pump Up the Volume", it's musically and lyrically fab.

Check out the 3 tracks posted below, and get ready to have your socks rocked:

[edit: the links are acting funny...head here instead]


It's a Bit Complicated will be out 06/26/07 on Downtown/Atlantic

Under Review: The Slip

These guys have been around the block a few times but seemed to have slipped under the radar. Considering their Shins-ish sound I find it pretty weird that the cool kids have yet to pick up on them. Maybe it's the fact that I don't watch Grey's Anatomy.

I know, I hate that show too.

But enough about lame doctor shows, this Boston trio has some serious good stuff going on pretty much throughout their new LP Eisenhower. While there isn't anything "new" here, The Slip seem to have figured out exactly how to write catchy, cute indie pop. Personally I would love to hear them get diverge from their sound a bit and add some synth to flush out the sound they hint at in "Mothwing Bite". Meanwhile, what The Slip do, they do well, pretty much everything from opener "Children of December" to closer "Paper Birds" is pretty damn good.

I'm sure that anyone who liked the Garden State soundtrack will dig this LP bigtime.

Eisenhower is out now on STUDIO PLATEAU Records.

Site News: New Feature Ahoy!

Yep, I got tired of that crusty ol' "Weekly Playlist Powered by Last.fm" thing.

I'm sure you hated it too.

Well, if you mosey on over to the right side of the screen you'll see the brand new addition to So Overdone, "So Hot Right Now".

Start Ooo'ing and Awww'ing.

Rant: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

After buying a new guitar and playing it like mad for the past few days I found a very helpful site on the internets. Chances are if you play guitar (or like to think you do) then you may need some help figuring out how to play diffrent chords (I'm far too lazy to list examples).

Enter Chordbook!




This site has a flash application where you select what chord you want to play and it shows you where to put your fingers, how it should sound (on electric and acoustic) and you even can add a capo (the guitar tool thing, not the mafia type) onto the e-guitar.

We'll return to our regularly scheduled snob related news shortly.

Weekend Update: Album Leaks and Starbucks

...And we're back!

I hope you've all managed to get by this weekend without a constant fix of overdoneness.

A recap of what happened this weekend in bite sized news bits:

- A new Ratatat remix album leaked...and it's sadly really bad. Oh well, maybe they're just buying time. That or they're getting lazy
- A new Wilco album leaked...I've yet to listen to it, but it's safe to assume it sucks but will be loved by a fair few people with less then good taste.

In equally crappy news the McDonald's of the espresso world - Starbucks - has started another record label. So far they've signed the better of the two still living Beatles. Rumor has it though that they've been talking to critic wet dream subjects Radiohead. Oh well, maybe if they sign they'll do a split EP with Nora Jones.